[Nhcoll-l] Gathering info on in-house testing of printed labels for fluid collections!

Thu Apr 23 11:53:31 EDT 2026

Hi Gali,

Thanks for moving this forward!

My test has been appallingly unscientific, as it was not originally meant
as a test of labels/ink nor meant to run as long as it has (and so has been
neglected/not supervised with care).

About 5 years ago (9 and 13 July 2021), I filled a variety of vials with
70% ethanol and placed into each of them a label identical to those we use
for both our dry and wet specimens in our insect collection, then set the
vials on a window ledge. They sat in the window for about two years until
they were accidentally knocked down during an office cleaning, then were
removed and placed into a clear deli container and have sat jumbled
together in a different window since then. The vials that still retain
alcohol up to or above the level of the label today were borosilicate vials
with phenolic polyseal screw caps (Bioquip 8801P and 8804P) and
polypropylene vials with TPE O-rings in the caps (Hyundai Micro
HBS020CS1SF). The labels were printed on Enduro Xerographic 100% cotton
paper using the black-and-white setting (which uses only black ink) on an
Epson ET-4750 EcoTank printer filled with Epson T5021 black ink (this is
the standard black ink for the ET-4750, from the Epson T502 ink bottle
pack) in 3 pt Avenir Book font, and the dates on the labels were
handwritten using a black Pigma Micron pen (Sakura stock # XSDK005-49). The
labels remain perfectly readable, but the text appears slightly to
moderately faded compared to similar-aged labels that have been kept in the
dark, or compared to newly-printed labels. In my subjective assessment (no
quantitative measuring of contrast or anything like that), the text made
using the printer and the text written in pen both appear faded to a
similar degree; if anything, the text written in pen appears more faded
because it originally appeared darker than the printed text, whereas now
the text made using both methods appears about the same darkness (however,
the text written in pen may only have appeared darker initially because its
lines are much thicker than in the text made by the printer).

Unfortunately, some of the above products are discontinued, but suitable
alternatives are available (Bioquip is sadly no more, but polyseal/polycone
vials can be obtained from a variety of sources; Sarstedt's 72.694.300
vials are similar to the no-longer-available Hyundai Micro product named
above, but seem in my subjective assessment to be higher quality; Epson
offers a variety of EcoTank printers that take the same ink as the
discontinued ET-4750 as well as other printers that take inks with
different product numbers but that, according to their SDSs, appear to have
a similar composition).

Again, the above is terribly unscientific, so don't take it for more than
it's worth. However, considering the popularity of Pigma Micron pens for
handwriting labels, the fact that the printer ink (subjectively) appears to
have held up just as well in this test gives me confidence in its longevity.

Also, according to their safety data sheets (available online), both the
Epson T5021 black ink and the ink in black Pigma Micron pens are colored at
least in part using carbon black pigment, which should have excellent
longevity.

I hope this is helpful in some way!

Kind regards,
Kendrick

*Kendrick Fowler*, *Entomology Lab Manager*
Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program  |  hvfarmscape.org
+1 (518) 672-7994 (office)  |  +1 (267) 377-7567 (cell)

*Follow us** on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/Farmscape-Ecology-Program-154393294745947/> or
subscribe to our **Progress of the Seasons Journal
<https://progressoftheseasons.wordpress.com/> for weekly **photoessays
on **Columbia
County's natural **wonders**.*

On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 9:52 AM Gali Beiner <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il>
wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> We very recently held a long (over 50 postings!) discussion here in
> NHCOLL, headed "Desktop thermal printers?". In that thread, I mentioned the
> possibility of creating some sort of "digital space" for information on
> ongoing "informal" testing and follow-ups on labels in different places.
>
> *There is an opening for doing exactly this within the framework of the
> SPNHC wikipages*. Those of you who conduct such ongoing informal tests or
> have specific observations from "their" collections (Andy, Chris, Fowler,
> Hans-Joachim and anyone else out there, apologies if I failed to mention
> anyone) are very much invited to contact me. It will be good to list the
> duration of your procedures, which products exactly you put under
> observation, general conditions of your procedure, etc. I'll try to create
> a table for the purpose.
>
> Let's see how this goes! All this info that never gets published because
> it is "not exactly scientific" but still very interesting now has a chance
> to be seen!
>
> Gali
>
>
> --
> Gali Beiner (ACR)
> Conservator, Palaeontology Lab
> National Natural History Collections
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> Berman Building, Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat Ram
> Jerusalem 91904, Israel
> Fax. 972-2-6585785
> *gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il>*
>
> *https://nnhc.huji.ac.il/?lang=en <https://nnhc.huji.ac.il/?lang=en>*
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20260423/35b82daf/attachment.html>